Installation from .ISO

Mammoth Cloud provides an assortment of pre-installed operating systems to deploy including Ubuntu, CentOS, and Windows. Our cloud infrastructure also supports installing your server's operating system from an .iso file in the same manner you may be familiar with on a physical server. In this article we will demonstrate how to install FreeBSD, but the process is essentially the same no matter what operating system you want to install as long as it is available as an .iso download.

What is FreeBSD?

FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system, bearing some similarities to Linux but also with a wide number of differences. While less prevalent than Linux, there are a number of reasons to consider using FreeBSD:

Whether by design or simply due to the smaller number of potential targets, some consider FreeBSD to be more secure than Linux

The core software supplied (kernel, init system, and command line tools) is all written by the FreeBSD development team, giving the system a clear and understandable structure.

Developers who want to know UNIX, and not just Linux, can benefit from exposure to alternative implementations.

Creating your VPS

Head over to the signup page, proceed through the signup and when prompted to select an Operating System, choose "BYO Operating System":

Selecting a plan with the resources you require. FreeBSD will fit comfortably onto our smallest plan, but you may need more resources for your intended workload. Proceed through the account and billing details setup, and in thirty seconds your VPS will be ready and waiting for your ISO upload.

Uploading the FreeBSD ISO

After completing signup, mPanel will drop you straight into the Upload screen so that you can provide the ISO to use during installation:

Next to Upload Will: select "Create new temporary image".

When selecting where to Upload from we can accept ISOs either uploaded from your local PC, or a HTTP URL can be supplied for the ISO to be retrieved from. A local file is useful if you have a custom-modified distribution, but generally the HTTP server option is preferred since the operating system's mirror network can be used.